Are You Still Charging by the Hour?

You may have heard this parable before - but if you are still charging your clients by the hour, it's definitely worth revisiting.

There was this huge factory a long time ago that made a certain widget that was in high demand.  

Well, one day, the central machine, the one that every other machine connected to broke down and the entire factory was at a standstill.  

The owners of the company frantically tried to get the machine going knowing that every minute that it was down they were losing tens of thousands of dollars in production.  

They tried everything they could to fix it but after continual failed attempts they went out and hired a consultant.  

When the consultant arrived they were surprised to see he was a little old man, grey with age, and in he walked, or perhaps more accurately limped in with his little toolbox and headed straight for the machine.  

As he approached the machine he reached out his hand to feel the machine. As he ran his hand along the machine, almost systematically, you could tell he was looking for something, looking to feel for something. 

When only moments passed he stopped, stooped down and opened his little toolbox and pulled out his little hammer, and just taps in this small place, and almost immediately the machine roars back into production. Everyone is happy, they are back to work and making money.

The little man sends in his invoice for $20,000 and upon receiving it the company owner is furious and refuses to pay.  

He calls this little man and says I saw you, you were barely there for 5 minutes and all you did was tap the machine, how can you justify sending me an invoice like this and demand that the little man itemize and break down his invoice. The little man agrees that this is a fair request and complies.

The new itemized bill read:

Hammer: $5

Knowing where to hit the machine with hammer: $19,995

The point is it's not about the report or dashboard or whatever format you choose to present your information in. It's not about the time it takes you to design the perfect excel spreadsheet or format the perfect-looking report. As the little man with the hammer, the wisdom you are able to offer your clients is likely worth more than the time it takes for you to share it.

You could have the most monstrous spreadsheet or the prettiest report and in the end, it could be worthless if it doesn't have the key contributions it requires from you to be understandable and actionable. This is the value you are able to deliver, this is knowing exactly where on that giant machine to tap with the hammer to get the machine up and going again.

Your clients need your wisdom to help guide them on the tumultuous road we call running a business. You need to adopt the mentality that your wisdom and experience are worth more than the time it takes to create it or share it. Once you can recognize this you can really tweak your own business to leverage technology and scale your firm to the next level.